Asia Briefing: Sara Duterte Impeachment Trial Begins, NATO Summit in Turkey, Modi’s Regional Diplomacy
Asia’s key news developments for this week:
On Monday, the government of the Philippines began the second impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte. The charge sheet lists allegations of graft, abuse of authority, and an alleged move to have the president killed. The Supreme Court gave a clean chit to her adult in a previous trial because of technical issues. The process could go on for several months, and if successful, could affect her political aspirations of running in the 2028 presidential elections.
Tuesday will see the start of the NATO summit being hosted by Turkey in Ankara. Secretaries of State from the US, Marco Rubio, said this would be one of the most critical summits in the history of the organization. He added that some of NATO’s Indo-Pacific partner states – Japan, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand – as well as Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates will be attending the summit along with the 32 NATO countries. Ukraine will also be participating in the summit. The agenda of the event is focused on the progress that has been made in fulfilling the defense commitment made at the previous summit in The Hague. The US wants to spread part of its defense expenditure among its allies, has said.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is in Indonesia, through Wednesday. The visit will be followed by trips to Australia and New Zealand through Saturday. Modi is slated to have discussions with Indonesia President Prabowo Subianto and have an address for people from the Indian diaspora in Jakarta. Reports suggest critical minerals will be a key topic of discussion, with India and Indonesia working on strong ties regarding the matter.
Malaysia’s central bank is expected to keep the base rate unchanged at 2.75% on Thursday when it makes the monetary policy decision. The bank had brought down the key interest rates by 25 basis points in July 2025 for the promotion of growth amid rising global uncertainties, after keeping the rates at 3% since May 2023 to encourage growth and achieve stability. Most economists predict that the policy towards keeping the interest rate unchanged may be kept through the rest of 2026, by balancing the robust domestic demand and external trading activities related to geopolitical factors.
Luxshare Precision) of Shenzhen, a top supplier to Apple, will conduct the largest Hong Kong related second listing to date, which will raise up to USD 3.1bn. Among the Apple devices assembled are ‘AirPod’ and the ‘iPhone’ range of electronics. The initial public offering (IPO) of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), India’s largest company providing information technology services, will be made available in the market on the coming date. The report from the company recorded a slight, and about 2.4% decline at the end of the fiscal year of March, which is an opposite outcome compared to other competitors like Infosys and HCL, which were able to register growth despite their challenges that include clients demanding they revise terms and conditions in their contracts, as well as rival vendors increasing their prices to beat the stiff competition by AI advances in the industry. Also announced recently are in Fast Retailing and Seven & i (takeout stocks) and aggregated data on the trend of consumer prices in China and Taiwan with respect to trade.
Finally, Saturday will be an important date for Johor state in Malaysia, as elections are due. The whole state elections will choose all 56 assembly members. There will be 172 candidates for the election, and the result of the votes will be very significant for the next government of the state. Although the current federal government will not be affected, the outcome will be a crucial indicator of the support for the Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s unity government and may help or prevent him from calling an early general election ahead of the February 2028 deadline.